Hi Dave, how's it going you seem to have been very busy by the looks of things, did you check out the roth rattle bomb metalflake cans, prob not viable in the uk it would be hard to get, I got rid of that terrible 009 pectronix dizzy and stuck the old one back on for now and am waiting delivery of an original solex 34 pict carb from machine 7 so hopefully all will be good for the winter. I've been busy metalflakeing a guitar in hollographic orange, check it out at www.facebook.com/thefunkyflakeshed and gigging a lot, nice under car lights mate

I checked out that Roth stuff, and got kind caught up with Ibbotson Flake instead 

i havent come across them before,i just had a look and they have some interesting stuff like star flakes and a range of yellows,so i assume you got green then,are you gonna brush it on ? i wonder what the stars look like.

As some of you know, I decided to try and paint the number plate light holder with Metalflake by using a paintbrush - but before you all start laughing, take a look at the thread here for the full story of how it went - and then feel free to giggle to your hearts content

http://www.beachbuggy.info/index.php/topic,7580.msg78069.html#msg78069





Anyway, I`m going to fit this bit to the Buggy as it looks far better than the orange one that came off, whilst remaining a different enough colour to keep those of you with OCD in check.

I have to say Dave that looks pretty good

Cheers mate 

Does leave me with a bit of a dilemma though, and I bet you can guess what that is too 

That look like a good result but am thinking a whole tub may be a job and a half.

Go for it Dave you have all winter to get it done and a nice garage to do it in

As I am still waiting for this elusive starter motor to turn up, I thought I would pay some attention to the growing hoard of wheels that arrived a while back (Yes, I did it again) and felt it about time to see what could be done with them. At the moment, I have some 8.5x15 American Racing Slots on mine on 5 stud Chevy adapter plates. After the recent problems a few posts back with stripped threads, I decided that I wanted to get rid if the adapters and revert back to 4 stud. Half a dozen 8.5x15 American Racing 4x130 wheels may have arrived here in one delivery, but believe me, they are still as rare as rocking horse poo and it took some searching to get these.





I took a couple of them down to my mate at Wheelpower in Torquay for him to wave his magic wand as I waved all of my credit cards back at him(!). They were first bead blasted and because old alloys are generally porous, they were powder coated instead of painted. Finally the front face was diamond cut to give this nice shiney new appearance. I need to find some Poorboys Wax now, just to finish them off and seal them.





Its a shame that most of that red will be covered up when the tyres and wheel nuts go back on though, but does go to show what you can do with some old knackered wheels.

Wow

That, looks amazing 

Brilliant job

Things are never quite as straightforward as you hope are they?

I needed to put some valves in my wheels, and unlike the rubber ones we all use on our daily drivers that are ripped out at every tyre change, these old skool alloys use what is known as a bolt in valve, and once fitted, they remain in place when tyres are changed. Trouble is, most alloys these days use an 8mm hole for the valve, and the trend amongst the boy racers is to use hidden valves with removable bits so that you don`t see them. The standard hole size for normal wheels is 11.5mm, and you can imagine what was going through my mind when I measured my own hole at 13mm. Searching around on the net I found a pair of stainless valves from India, and thinking that the tolerances and sizes were probably not that accurate, I took a punt on a set, and this was what arrived a few days later.





My suspicions were correct, and the rubber base had a nice fat shoulder that fills the hole nicely, except that when I went to tighten them up, I realised that I had made a monumental schoolboy error and had not taken into account the thickness of the alloy wheel. If you look at the main body of the above valve, and then compare with the second set I had to obtain elsewhere, you will spot the difference in length of the threaded part of the body.





With enough thread for them to bolt up nice and tight, the rubber seal has been firmly squashed enough to fill the hole and if I have got this right, then they will hold air. the second set actually felt a better quality of valve, and also came with a metal washer instead of a plastic one.






I also managed to find a tub of Poorboys Wax, which is brilliant for sealing the surfaces of the alloys, making them easier to keep clean. The advantage of this over lacquering them is that they do not go yellow or flake when the clear top coat comes off. This stuff is really easy to apply, just smear it on like ordinary wax, let it dry and then buff it off.





I`m not quite ready to fit these yet, as have a few other mods that need doing before I think about swapping the tyres over, so shall stick these in the corner of the garage and get on with the next job.

They look the dogs Dave but you may be best off taking the powder coat off the bolt holes.

Quote from: Flags on September 30, 2015, 10:26:36 PM
They look the dogs Dave but you may be best off taking the powder coat off the bolt holes.

Absolutely - 

I`m fully aware that leaving the powder coat there can lead to the bolts working themselves loose, but appreciate the heads up   

After fitting some longer bits of M5 threaded bar into the mounting holes, I finally fitted the number plate holder back in place and wired it all back up. Colour really is a good match, but I`m not going to contemplate doing any more until I have properly seen what it looks like outside in the daylight. For that I need the car to be running again.





Time to concentrate on the engine again